Chinese Central Bank Chief Speaks On Yuan Convertability In London

Chinese officials told European Union members that the yuan would be fully convertible by 2015, but the Chinese central bank's governor Zhou Xiaochan said there was no deadline for convertibility, according to Bloomberg.

Zhou said the offshore yuan market was developing faster than imagined. China has agreed to give the UK formally support to make London a key yuan trading center, for now, Hong Kong remains the most important player in the offshore yuan market.

Achieving full convertibility has been a condition for the yuan entering the IMF reserve currency basket, but Zhou has said that he sees no 'urgency' in including the yuan in the IMF currency basket.

The yuan's power in international markets is however growing. For one, Africa's biggest oil producer Nigeria, said it is diversifying its foreign exchange reserves to include the yuan, and will have yuan-denominated trade settlements in oil deals.

Meanwhile, China's central bank has injected 1.778 trillion yuan through its open market operations this year, but has also raised reserve requirement ratio six times in 2011 to curb inflation, a move that drained 2.2 trillion yuan from the financial system according to Reuters.